


Breathless

by boasamishipper



Category: Top Gun (1986), Top Gun: Maverick (2020)
Genre: 2020s, Fluff, Happy Ending, M/M, Mild Angst, Post-Canon, Prompt Fill, Top Gun: Maverick Speculation, implied/referenced past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:18:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boasamishipper/pseuds/boasamishipper
Summary: Typical of Maverick to take the breath from him and return it in one fell swoop.For Carly's prompt: A kiss that lasts so long, they are sharing each other’s breaths. TG2 speculation.
Relationships: Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
Comments: 6
Kudos: 59





	Breathless

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thecarlysutra](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecarlysutra/gifts).



It’s just past 0500 when the call comes in that Captain Mitchell and the graduates will be returning to NAWDC by mid-morning. By 0830, the base has been scrubbed to a shine, and at 0900, almost all personnel are standing in the parking lot just outside the main entrance, squinting at the horizon and waiting.

Ice can’t blame Sundown for stifling a yawn as the time drags on, but he’s too preoccupied to feel the burn of exhaustion. He tries to focus on the piece of gum he’s chewing, on the warmth of the morning sun on his back, on anything but his roiling stomach and the nerves that threaten to make his hands shake. He’s still the Iceman, still ice cold, no mistakes, and he’s got a reputation to maintain.

According to the reports from Rear Admiral Rollins, who Ice thinks is a smug prick on the best of days and insufferable almost all the time, the mission was a success. Rollins had sounded almost disappointed when he relayed the news, like he’d really been hoping the mission would demand the ultimate sacrifice from those who had been chosen to fly it, but everyone made it through mostly unscathed. Rooster, Phoenix, Hangman, Bob, Payback, Fanboy. And Maverick. Thank God for that.

After TOPGUN in ‘86, after the USS Enterprise, after they’d both come back as instructors and then went their separate ways, Ice hadn’t expected to ever see Maverick again, and he was mostly fine with it. Even if when he closed his eyes at night, he could still picture every detail of Maverick’s face with perfect clarity, one, five, ten, twenty years later. Could still hear his laugh, remember the curve of his smile and the way it felt to hold him in his arms. 

(That was all that Ice let himself think about, anyway.)

Then Ice received orders directly from the Pentagon to come back to Fallon and oversee the training of a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a mission whose details were above even his own security clearance, only to find out when he arrived that Maverick would be the kids’ instructor. They fell back into a version of their old routine, stilted by their time apart, and Ice tried not to let it bother him when he saw Maverick smile at Penny Benjamin in the O Club at night. Twenty years was more than enough time to get over somebody, even if his heart refused to get the message.

And then, the night before Maverick and the kids were set to leave for their mission, Maverick had appeared on Ice’s porch around one in the morning. He ignored Ice’s grumbling and Ice’s concern, and grabbed Ice by the front of his bathrobe and kissed him. Quick, warm, desperate. “I had to do that,” he said when he pulled away, stumbling back to his motorcycle. He didn’t meet Ice’s eyes. Ice’s lips were tingling; he felt like his entire world had just been inverted. “I had to — I don't know if I’m — I had to do that, Ice. I’m sorry.”

The shock took around two days to leave Ice’s system completely. Then Ice went to NAWDC, locked himself in his office, and pulled strings and sold favors and took advantage of every connection he had until he found someone that would keep him posted on the status of the mission. It might not have been the most professional thing to do — the most  _ ice cold, no mistakes  _ thing to do — but Ice did not survive the Layton rescue and the Gulf and a bout of lung cancer and twenty years pining just to lose Maverick now. If Maverick thought he could just kiss him and wander out of his life again, he had another fucking thing coming.

The sound of people cheering and whooping fills the air, and Ice looks up just in time to see three vehicles pull up to the main entrance, one after the other. Out of the first one steps Rollins, smiling like he was the one that flew, and Coleman, and a few officers that Ice doesn’t recognize. Payback and Fanboy step out of the second one, followed by Bob and Hangman, and Ice holds his breath. Where’s—

Then out steps Maverick, flanked by Phoenix and Bradley, and Ice’s entire body slumps from relief. It’s tempered slightly by the fact that Maverick looks like shit. There are cuts on his face and neck, and a purpling bruise forming on his temple. He’s limping a little, and his movements are overly stiff, making Ice suspect he’s got a couple of fractured ribs, if not broken ones. He looks worse than Ice has ever seen him, but he’s alive. Ice will take that.

“You!”

The word escapes before he can catch it, and the crowd parts for Ice like the Red Sea as he walks toward Maverick. Phoenix looks like the threat of hell will not remove her from Maverick’s side, and Bradley tightens his grip on Maverick’s left arm. But Maverick gestures for them to stand down, and steps forward to meet Ice. His head is held up high, a smile playing on his mouth.

“Hi, Ice,” Maverick says.

Ice kisses him.

It’s electrifying, waking up and warming everything in his body that had been numb and cold for as long as he could remember. Every sound and sight, every sensation fades away into white noise as he closes his eyes and pulls Maverick toward him, one hand at the small of Maverick’s back, bracing Maverick against his forearm, trying to bring them even closer. Maverick’s strung tight from his toes to his fingertips, pushing his body against Ice’s, his arms looped around Ice’s neck for support. No one had ever kissed him like Maverick was kissing him back now. No one had ever. Nothing had ever.

He wants — God, he doesn’t know what he wants, there’s an unnameable  _ want _ pressing on his chest and smothering his thoughts. But Maverick gets it, gets what Ice wants before Ice can even think about it for himself, and opens his mouth a little more, breathing into Ice’s, sharing his breath so the kiss can go longer, and Ice clutches Maverick tighter, returning the favor. Typical of Maverick to take the breath from him and return it in one fell swoop.

Finally, when Ice’s lungs feel like they might burst, he moves back. He feels stunned again, dizzy, light-headed. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees some similar stunned expressions on the officers, and maybe even some money changing hands among the kids, but he keeps most of his gaze on Maverick. Tries to pull himself back together.

“Mitchell,” he says, like the last few seconds — hours, days, several small eternities— never happened at all. “If you  _ ever  _ kiss me and run off again, I swear to God I’ll kill you myself.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Maverick says. There’s a slow smile curving his mouth, spreading across his face, and Ice wants to kiss it off him. “I love you too.”


End file.
